Three-Dimensional Finite Element Analysis of Doweled Joints in Concrete Pavements

Concrete pavements are usually selected by pavement engineers for roads subjected to heavy traffic loading and feature high maintenance and construction costs. As such, the structural behaviour of concrete pavements with doweled joints is evaluated herein using Finite Element Method. The pavement system is modelled using three-dimensional brick elements and five loading cases are applied to replicate realistic vehicular loadings approaching and leaving the joint. The structural behaviour of the pavement at the doweled joint is investigated for: (1) pavement with and without voids, and (2) different dowel bar spacing. The amount of load transfer was obtained from the shear force in the beam elements that simulate dowels. Results show that the voids underneath the joint causes an increase in the vertical displacement of the concrete slab and vertical stress at concrete/dowel bar interface which may result in crushing of the concrete and dowel loosening. Wider dowel spacings result in increased shear forces and the size of the region containing engaged dowels does not change significantly with dowel spacing, only effecting the distribution of shear forces. The study shows that the dowel bars perform effectively as a load transfer device in the concrete pavement system even under severe conditions.